The present application relates to a sample cartridge and a device for measuring the electrical characteristics of a liquid sample. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to a sample cartridge or the like, which has a structure for measuring the electrical characteristics of a liquid sample with a high precision.
Measuring the electrical characteristics of a liquid sample and then determining the physical properties of the sample from the measurement result or discriminating the kind of a cell or the like that is included in the sample are performed (refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-042141, for example). As the electrical characteristics that are measured, complex permittivity or its frequency dispersion (dielectric spectrum) can be given. The complex permittivity or its frequency dispersion is generally calculated by measuring complex capacitance or complex impedance between electrodes by using a solution retainer or the like provided with electrodes for applying voltage to a solution.
In Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2010-181400, a technique of acquiring the information about blood coagulation from the permittivity of blood is disclosed and “a blood coagulation system analysis device including a pair of electrodes, an applying means for applying alternating voltage to the pair of electrodes at predetermined time intervals, a measuring means for measuring the permittivity of blood disposed between the pair of electrodes, and an analysis means for analyzing the degree of working of a blood coagulation system by using the permittivity of the blood which is measured at the predetermined time intervals since an anticoagulant action acting on the blood has been released” is described.
In the past, as a test of a blood coagulation system, a prothrombin time or an activated partial thromboplastin time has been widely known. In the blood coagulation system analysis device described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2010-181400, it is possible to analyze the working of an early blood coagulation system by using a temporal change of permittivity before a time when blood begins to coagulate from the dynamic viewpoint of viscoelasticity. For this reason, it is considered that compared to a test method in the past, it is possible to increase an analysis precision and it is possible to perform early analysis.